An inference question tests what you can reasonably conclude from facts that don't state the answer outright. Find what's changed and what's stayed the same, then ask how the setting might help explain the pattern. Put those facts in a few words and predict what's likely true, but go only one step past the text. Check the full claim, because even one part that needs an extra assumption can turn an inference into a guess.
Hints
- Hint 1
Compare the two trip measures with the survey's count of active members. Put the three results side by side.
- Hint 2
Look at where the new stations were installed. How might that location help explain both changes in the trip data?
Step-by-step
Link the changes to the station locations
Step 1Summarize the three results
The program data show the average trip distance decreased, while the total number of trips per day rose sharply, so our inference needs to explain both changes. Did the number of users rise too? The surveys report no significant change in the number of active members. That gives us more trips of shorter length, with roughly the same membership, so the rise in trips isn't evidence of a rise in active members.
- Step 2
Use the station locations
Where were the new stations placed? They were adjacent to major bus and train stops, so a bike ride could cover the short stretch to or from a bus or train journey. Existing members could make these rides more often, adding trips without adding members. That gives us the prediction more short bike rides linked to transit, which fits the falling average distance too. This is one step past the facts, since the text doesn't directly report each ride's purpose.
- Step 3
Check every claim
Does each claim stay within what the text shows? Fewer bikes were available adds a change in bike supply that the passage never reports, while longer recreational routes turns the decrease in distance around. Membership to double conflicts with the survey's roughly unchanged membership. The choice about short connections to public transit explains the trip pattern through the station locations without inventing a rise in membership. Choice D.